• Register

Below is a fast paced, action arcade game primary designed for 2 players to battle each other on the same machine. It seeks capture the fun of old school console titles where multiplayer strictly meant 'invite your friends over' Ships compete to break open capsules which release drones to help their attack, capsules often contain a variety of other hazards that will change the battlefield dynamic. Additional game modes are being considered, which change to goals of the players. Players can both use the keyboard for control, and gamepads are supported as well. At this stage, the scope for multiplayer is 1v1 on the same machine. Online play might be considered if there is demand. Below has a one player mode against a competent bot, so players can refine their skill for the next encounter with their friends.

Post news Report RSS Introducing Below: First video and screenshots of new version

After a break over the new year, Below is back with a complete recode in a 3D engine. Screens and a brief video now available.

Posted by on

After a break over the new year, Below is back with a complete recode in a 3D engine. Screens and a brief video now available. Below is an action-arcade game which I have been on and off developing for some time now.

After taking the project so far in 2D, I decided that to achieve the visual style I wanted for the game, it was going to be necessary to move to a 3D engine for this project. So after 3 months on and off development, the first glimpses of the results are available in the images/video sections. Everything has been rewritten from scratch, so the AI is a bit rough around the edges, but it's coming along nicely.


Lasers, explosions and other objects now all cast light on surrounding objects, which has helped tie together the color palette a lot. Aside from that, now that I am no longer reliant on 2d pre-rendering it is a lot more practical to add effects such as the drone ships performing barrel rolls etc. Finally, being in 3D, it is now resolution independent, meaning it will look great on really high resolution displays.

In the coming days, I will update the graphics and details about the rules of play, and release a captioned version of the video on display in order to explain a bit better what is going on.

Post comment Comments
Germanunkol
Germanunkol - - 153 comments

Looking very solid, I like the GUI at the beginning as well. Nice work!
And I really like the fact that it's a hotseat game...

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
bzwill Author
bzwill - - 1 comments

Thanks for the comment! I'll be sure to post some more footage in the following days where I'll break down some of the rules of the game etc.

Reply Good karma+1 vote
Post a comment

Your comment will be anonymous unless you join the community. Or sign in with your social account: